Date:         Sat, 4 Sep 2004 15:21:23 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Gear mini-review: The Bus Depot Ezy-Awning
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I used a Bus Depot Ezy-Awning,

 http://busdepot.com/busdepot/details/awning.jsp

for the first time last week, camping at Paradise campground near
Eugene, OR. We had mostly drizzly weather with sporadic showers. I am
glad I had it to use, as it provided a dry area outside the sliding door
for gear and a place to stand.

That said, I wish I had brought along the photos from the web site, as
this thing came with NO instructions. This would not normally slow me
down, as I am familiar with many styles of tents, ranging from
ultralightweight backpacking tents, standard dome tents, Wal-mart family
tents, to full-size canvas wall tents. But this one took a lot of study
to assemble. After assembling it, it all made sense, but I am glad that
we were not in a downpour while I was trying to figure it out.

The construction is so-so, being a mixture of fiberglass shock-corded
poles and assorted steel tubes of various sizes and means of fastening
together. The nylon awning was well-made, and it fit tautly to the
crossmembers and end pieces.

Without reference to instructions, I made the mistake of assuming that
all the pole sections were needed for the two outer legs, and ended up
with a complete chunk of narrow upper tubing section shoved down into
the fatter lower tubing section. When I discovered my error, I could not
remove the inside tube without stretching the spring that normally holds
the two lower, fat tubes together because one of the spring clips had
become wedged into the end of the narrow tubing section. Pulling the
narrow tube out of the fat tube stretched the steel spring to
uselessness.  I'd rather see bungee-type shock cords there.

I don't think I'll need the spring, but it was useful for my first setup
as it showed that those two fat tubes were meant to go together. I
reckon the spare narrow tubing bits are to be used when the front legs
need to be longer, like when the awning is pitched over a downhill.

The rain gutter clips took a bit of playing with to figure out which end
did what, but that might just be due to me being slow. However, I am not
very confident in how they grabbed the gutter, seeming to clamp mostly
onto the vinyl strip and not much onto the steel gutter.

All-in-all, the overall construction is a bit clunky, it's surprisingly
heavy for what it is, but it accomplished what I had hoped: a bit of
shelter outside the Westy. It will stay in my basic camping kit.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 VW Type 2 / 84 Westy: A poor but proud race.
KG6RCR